A Colchester head teacher has hit out at a mobile phone company for starting a consultation during the school holidays.

Bridget Harris, head teacher at St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School, said she received a letter from Vodafone regarding plans for a mobile mast on nearby St Botolph’s Church only beacuse a school secretary happened to go in to work.

“What has angered me is that we’re given 14 days to complain but the letter was sent to arrive after we closed for the summer,” she said.

A spokesman for Vodafone said:“Consultation on this site has been carried out in accordance with the process laid out in the Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network development.

“We have received responses from local schools to this consultation and are continuing to address these.”